ABSTRACT
The work of the groups was very frequently interrupted by: personal memories of the death of a family members; expressions of anxiety about death and the elaboration of a series of defences against them; requests for personalized psychological treatment for the hospital staff, particularly at a nursing level. The opportunity for the author's encounter with large groups was provided by the decision, by a local hospital, to undertake research designed to improve the treatment of patients in the terminal phase. The author thinks that the task can be used to hold at bay very deep anxieties of psychotic disintegration both in the group and in the individual. Even if the group is almost aware of being disturbed by small eruptions from the inner world, defences against the study of these “accidents” is rooted in efficiency surrounding the assigned task and the traditional way in which it is pursued.
